Ottawa scraps youth job centres

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1140427--government-scraps-student-job-centres-as-youth-unemployment-climbs

Diane Finley’s latest cutback came at a particularly inopportune time.

The minister of human resources quietly scrapped Canada’s 300 student employment centres five weeks ago.

The youth unemployment rate had just leapt to a 15-month high of 14.5 per cent — almost double the national average.

The Prime Minister had just announced plans to reduce retirement benefits, inducing baby boomers to stay in the workforce longer.

Intergenerational tensions were bubbling up.

Last week, the minister’s decision leaked out, prompting students, parents, low-income advocates and opposition critics to accuse her of penalizing the young to solve the government’s budgetary woes.

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D- in the meantime, Ontario's Liberals reformed student loan grants. If you look closer, you'll see it was motivated, in part, by the desire to lower gov't operating costs with one central consolidated bureaucracy.

http://www.theargus.ca/articles/news/2012/02/30-off-for-some-5-5-increase-for-all

The 2012 rebate is a recent initiative by Ontario’s Liberals to reduce post-secondary tuition by 30%. With March coming up and another 5.5% increase in the works, this grant will lighten the financial burden of Lakehead students.

At least some of them.

Unfortunately, many students don’t qualify: mature students, graduate students, international students, students from out of province, students studying out of Ontario from the province, students who didn’t enter post-secondary school straight out of high school, students who lack predetermined grades, and part-time student are all out of luck...

The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario has claimed that the $423-million funding the rebate could have been better spent slashing tuition fees for all. “They (CFS-Ontario) have taken a very different approach than any of the other student associations, and they change their mind all the time,” Murray said in response to criticisms from Canada’s largest student organization. “During the election it was a (tuition) freeze, after the election it was a 12 per cent cut. Every time we've turned around and done something, the glass is always half empty for them, and they change their position from month to month.”


(D - good point.)

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http://ontariondp.com/en/armstrong-new-grant-will-do-nothing-to-stop-tuition-fee-hikes-and-deepening-student-debt

Last year, Ontario undergraduate and graduate students saw the highest annual tuition fee increases, at 5.4% and 10.6%, respectively.

Today the government has also scrapped the Ontario Textbook and Technology Grant, as well as the Ontario Trust for Student Support and phased-out the Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top Scholarships that many students depend upon to fund their studies and buy textbooks.

“We need to see tuition fees brought under control and measures to deal with mounting student debt that plagues Ontarians far beyond their student years. A new grant that only helps some students, and is funded by scrapping existing supports, does not solve the underlying problem of expanding tuition costs and deeper debt for graduates,” said Armstrong.

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http://www.therecord.com/news/canada/article/650992--ontario-liberals-kill-42-million-in-university-research-grants


Ontario Liberals kill $42 million in university research grants

TORONTO — The nearly broke Liberal government quietly scrapped $42 million in university research grants days before launching a 30 per cent tuition rebate for undergraduates.

The Toronto Star reports that in a sign of the lean days ahead, the province slashed key parts of the Ontario Research Fund — promoted by the Liberals to support scientific excellence to boost economic growth — due to “current fiscal challenges.”

The $42-million loss will be felt over the next two years of grant application funding, said George Dixon, vice-president of university research at the University of Waterloo.

“This was highly targeted research money designed to move the economic base of the province forward,” said Dixon, who is also chair of the Ontario Council on University Research, a group representing 20 universities and the Royal Military College.

The money was used to support research in areas such as clean technologies and the bio-economy, advanced health technologies, digital media, water research and even genomics.

“We are in a new normal now when it comes to new programs,” said Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid on Friday.

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http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1137877--drummond-report-ontario-liberals-poised-to-streamline-1-3b-in-business-subsidies

Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid said Tuesday that Queen’s Park wants to streamline $1.3 billion in business support programs to save “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

At the same time, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan confirmed the cash-strapped administration is hoping to reduce the $2.3 billion earmarked for tax credits to business.

The changes were recommended in former TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond’s Feb. 15 report on reforming government to balance the books.

While Duguid declined to say when or what subsidies would be cut, he served notice action is coming.

“The fact is we need to get a razor-sharp focus on the results of these programs, geared toward our number one priority — growth and jobs,” the economic development minister said.

“We fully intend to move forward with a consolidation of our business support programs. We’ve identified at least 50 … and there’s likely more,” he said, complaining that eight different ministries administer such funds.

In Drummond’s 668-page report, it was recommended the government move to “a more user-friendly, one-window portal” where grants, loans, and loan guarantees could be accessed and administered more efficiently.